For 15 straight matches this season, the Portland Timbers were unbeatable. Their compact and organized defend-and-counter style was difficult for opponents to break down and equally as effective at creating goals for Portland on the counterattack.

But on Saturday, the Vancouver Whitecaps snapped that streak and appeared to have hit on the formula for unraveling the Timbers. That blueprint? Beat the Timbers at their own game.

The Whitecaps came into Providence Park prepared to out-bunker and out-counter the Timbers and it worked—the Whitecaps eked past the Timbers, 2-1, in coach Giovanni Savarese’s first loss at Providence Park. As Diego Valeri lamented afterward: “Vancouver kicked the ball forward and they didn’t even look for a teammate.”

It would seem other teams—including D.C. United, who face the Timbers on Wednesday night—can just borrow the Whitecaps’ approach of being ultra-defensive and ultra-direct. But the Timbers’...